If you're an aviation fan, you're going to love this movie. The aerial
scenes of World War I era biplanes in action are truly astounding.

The lead role of the Baron is played by Matthias Schweighöfer whose
boyish good looks and magnetic smile are fully exploited to make the
Red Baron impossible to dislike. The character of the Baron is
portrayed as a young man of high principals who struggles to reconcile
his humanity in the completely inhumane circumstances of war. He is
torn between his sense of duty to his country and it's megalomaniac
leadership and his conscience. Now I don't know if any of that is
actually true, but it makes for a touching story nonetheless.

Overwhelmingly I was aware that the makers of this movie wanted to
transmit the message that Germans are not the stereotype so often
portrayed in war movies as either emotionless auto-bots of death and
destruction or blood thirsty hums. Is this done in an effort to raise
public opinion of Germans (it is a German production by the way) or
because audiences are growing intolerant of stereotyping and it's
injurious, evil nature. I can't say, I'd like to believe the latter,
but you'll certainly find the Baron and his fellow pilots all endearing
characters and you'll be saddened when most of them meet their maker in
the course of the story.

The writer  director Nikolai Müllerschön isn't very loyal to
historical facts in many respects. I was particularly disturbed by the
portrayal of the German Emperor (Kaiser Wilhelm) as a warmongering
protagonist and Paul Von Hindenburg as a foolish smiling fat man.
However, in order for the character of the Baron to shine so brightly
the Baron needed dark forces to nobly resist and therefore these men
were transformed to serve that purpose. I strongly advise the viewer
not to expect to get a history lesson from his movie.

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